The crumbling Cuban villa where Ernest Hemingway wrote 'The Old Man and the Sea' will be restored to its full glory with plans for the US to send $900,000 of building materials as relations continue to thaw

Hemingway lived in the Finca Vigia from 1939 to 1960, writing For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea there

The Finca Vigia Foundation has been trying for years to help stop thousands of his letters and 9,000 books from disintegrating in the heat

This will be the first major export of construction materials to the country since 1950 after President Obama loosened the trade embargo

The money will be used to construct a laboratory where the documents can be treated, preserved and safely stored

The Havana home where Ernest Hemingway would compose two of his most famous novels will receive $900,000 from the U.S to help save thousands of the writer's documents

The Finca Vigia Foundation, based in Boston, has been trying for years to help stop the thousands of books, letters and photos inside the home from disintegrating in the Cuban heat and humidity.

This will be the first major export of construction materials to the country since President Barack Obama loosened the trade embargo on the island.

The Havana home Finca Vigia, where Ernest Hemingway would compose two of his most famous novels, will receive $900,000 from the U.S to help save thousands of the writer's documents

Hemingway (pictured right awarding trophies to Fidel Castro after a fishing contest) lived in Ficia Vigia from 1939 to 1960. It was donated to the government after his death by the writer's fourth wife Mary Welsh (left)

'It's historic, not since the 1950s has a building with American materials been built here,' foundation executive director Mary-Jo Adams told CNN.

Hemingway lived in Ficia Vigia from 1939 to 1960, moving there with his third wife. It is where he would write For Whom The Bell Tolls and The Old Man And The Sea, the latter of which would go on to with the Pulitzer and Nobel Peace Prize for literature.

The house was donated to the Cuban government by Hemingway's fourth wife, Mary, after he committed suicide in Idaho in 1961.

It is now a museum, offering visitors the chance to tour the famous modernist writer's living room or getting married in his garden.

Officials with Cuba's National Cultural Heritage Council, which runs the Finca Vigia, have been enthusiastic about building a conservation laboratory but said they didn't have the funds or supplies to do it.

High-quality building materials are virtually impossible to find throughout much of Cuba, with homeowners forced to buy paint and water pumps stolen from government agencies and pay overseas travelers to bring items as large as sinks and kitchen cabinets in their checked luggage.

The Finca Vigia Foundation, based in Boston, has been trying for years to help stop the thousands of books, letters and photos inside the home from disintegrating in the Cuban heat and humidity

This will be the first major export of construction materials to the country since President Barack Obama loosened the trade embargo on the island (pictured is the dining room in Finca Vigia)

In state-run hardware stores, a request for an item as mundane as a box of screws can provoke peals of laughter from sales clerks.

The foundation's proposal to send four shipping containers with as much as $862,000 of materials ranging from nuts and bolts to tools and roofing was approved by the U.S. government in May, after Obama created a series of exemptions to the embargo.

The exceptions include permission for Americans to export supplies donated for the purpose of supporting the Cuban people in fields such as science, archaeology and historical preservation.

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Cuban architects, engineers and workmen will use the American supplies and Cuban cement blocks and mortar to construct a 2,400-square-foot, two-story laboratory where thousands of photos, roughly 9,000 books and a huge number of letters to and from Hemingway can be treated and preserved.

'It will make a tremendous difference,' said Adams. 'They'll be able to be kept for decades, if not longer.'

Thousands of Hemingway's documents, including early drafts of his book, have already been scanned and copies are sent to Boston for display at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

Hemingway would write For Whom The Bell Tolls and The Old Man And The Sea, the latter of which would go on to with the Pulitzer and Nobel Peace Prize for literature, in Finca Vigia

Cuban architects, engineers and workmen will use the American supplies to construct a 2,400-square-foot, two-story laboratory where thousands of photos, books and letters can be treated and preserved

TV home improvement expert Bob Vila, a Finca Vigia Foundation board member who is Cuban-American and speaks fluent Spanish, will help oversee the project, Adams said.

The series of exemptions that Obama carved in the embargo a month after his December 17 announcement of detente with Cuba is designed explicitly to help ordinary Cuban citizens and the island's growing private sector rather than its socialist, single-party government.

But the Cuban government retains control of most aspects of life on the island.

Obama administration officials acknowledged from the start that it would be impossible to prevent warming ties from helping a state apparatus that the U.S. criticizes for a lack of political and economic freedom.

American tourism to the island is still prohibited by U.S. law and critics of Obama's engagement with Cuba say that it will simply funnel cash to Raul Castro's government.

The Finca Vigia is one of Havana's most popular tourist attractions and its entrance fees go to the government, but Adams said the preservation lab wouldn't be a part of that.

'It is not going to attract visitors but it will keep the collection safe,' she said.

She said that questions about the ethics of a project that works with the Cuban government had long since dissipated.